More than two months after testing and admissions problems were uncovered at a West Bank magnet school that denied entrance to qualified students, the results of a districtwide probe of Jefferson Parish's advanced academies for high-performing students are due Friday under a federal directive.

And there is a lot at stake: the school system's quest to free itself from a federal desegregation order, the careers of three educators who have been suspended during the investigation and public confidence in the highly sought schools that were touted in part as desegregation tools as well as an alternative to private schools.

The inquiry was initiated after complaints about testing and admissions at Gretna No. 2 Academy for Advanced Studies, where Principal Patricia Wilty and teacher Kristin Harris have been suspended with pay. Administrators said they found 83 irregularities in 611 applications to the school that could have benefitted a student or deprived another. The irregularities included missing test records, students admitted over others with higher scores and questionable scores.

Rosalind Mathes, director of innovative programs and schools, also was suspended with pay.

The controversy unleashed a barrage of criticism directed at Superintendent Diane Roussel by parents, who have called for her ouster over Wilty's suspension.

The emotional issue also drew the attention of U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt, whose federal monitor overseeing Jefferson's consent decree set today as the deadline for completing the investigation. An independent team has culled through more than 11,000 applications to the eight advanced academies from the past three years.

"The admission of students to magnet schools on nondiscriminatory, race-neutral requirements and criteria is critical to School System compliance with the court order,'' Houston attorney Kelly Frels wrote in an Oct. 25 letter to the attorneys in the case. "Students seeking admission to the magnet schools must be tested, evaluated and treated equally.''

Listing proposed changes

As the investigation proceeded, district administrators created a committee of principals, community leaders and central office administrators to examine current admissions and testing practices at the special schools.

"I think everything is up for review,'' Roussel said this week.

Among the issues under discussion, according to a report given to the Jefferson Parish School Board are:

Centralized testing sites for East and West Jefferson.

Testing by a diverse group of administrators who are trained annually and "can attest in writing that they do not know each student they are assigned to test.''

Removal of principals from the process.

Creation of a department to handle testing and admissions for the advanced academies.

At this week's board meeting, parents from Gretna No. 2 implored school officials to wrap up the issue before the holidays because the investigation and suspensions have taken a toll on students and staff.

"The students' grades have dropped,'' said parent Beth Schibler of Gretna, whose son attends the school. "Parents are living in uncertainty.''

"The children are the center of this issue,'' said parent Addie Imsis of Gretna. "I can see that the children are not the same. They do not understand.''

Board member Ray St. Pierre sympathized with the parents and said the three suspended employees had been punished enough and should be reinstated.

"We all diligently thought we had a good process in place,'' he said. "Obviously, we were wrong. I, as a board member, was wrong."

But Roussel said she could not make a final recommendation on the employees' fates until she reads the report from the investigation. Still, she hoped to make final recommendations before the holiday.

"I don't think the process is totally flawed,'' she said of the testing and admissions policies. "The process was not followed. There were people not following what was in writing."

Desegregation issue at stake

District officials said Frels would send the report to Engelhardt and district administrators at the same time and that the parties would confer at a later date. The federal court is expected to consider a possible declaration of unitary status in June 2011that would end the Dandridge desegregation case.

Experts have said that if the school district can demonstrate the problems were isolated, Jefferson still has a good chance to have Engelhardt end federal supervision. The district is operating under a consent decree that defines how it will achieve equity in a number of areas, including staffing, facilities, programs and extracurricular activities.

Carl Bankston, chairman of the sociology department at Tulane University, said last month that the judge would have to decide if the issues are systemic in nature and whether the board is responding in an expeditious and thorough manner.

"If he (Engelhardt) believes this is an isolated incident at one school allegedly involving one School Board member and one principal, it probably would not be a major setback,'' he said. "The School Board will be inclined to exercise greater oversight in the name of equalization of opportunity.''

However, Bankston warned that the district could still have problems with public confidence.

Jackie Jones, lead organizer for the Jeremiah Group, which brought the testing and admissions issues to administrators and board members in a September public meeting, said she hopes changes in the process come with more accountability and clearer policies that parents can understand and most importantly, be applied fairly and equitably to all.

"We want to do whatever will address the issues,'' she said. "If people were paying attention to the complaints they were getting, a lot of this stuff could have been addressed.''